Got your steel toe boots on?

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‘Bout 2 decades ago I had a book burning.

I’m still uneasy about.

The pile of books I torched were OLD romance novels. Couldn’t give ‘em away. I tried. I could have trashed the books, which amounted to the same thing really. I did not want to haul them literally across the country and eventually bring them back.

So they got torched.
Florida preacher Terry Jones burned a copy of the Koran on March 20. The resulting conflagration has spread across the globe.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have 2 copies of the Koran in English. I have no intention whatsoever of burning either book. Also in the interest of full disclosure, I consider avowed evangelical atheists to be religious. One more disclosure: I have read the Bible several times and an nearly done reading the Koran. I have read a number of other religious texts.

In drafting this article I thought about pointing you to all kinds of links which discuss religious violence. I have decided against it. I simply tell you that in the name of religion, man has been killing man since the dawn of time (See Cain and Abel) and will continue to do so. No religion has a monopoly on killing in the name of its god. Why? Because man gets involved.

Lemme dismiss another item right now. Terry Jones is a liar. He said he would not burn a Koran. He did. “If you want to be technical,” he said, “I guess we broke our word.”

With the technicalities out of the way, let’s look at the book burning.

What is a book? Today we have two different kinds. A dead tree edition and an electronic edition.

Is there a difference? If I have a ebook copy of the Koran and I trash it, say set fire to the harddrive, would that too incite the kind of violence Jones and Co’s action has bred? You may not be in a position to answer that as you may not be Muslim. I do hope someone who is Muslim weighs in on that question.

Pick another book. If you are a Christian and I take a copy of the Bible as an ebook and set fire to the harddrive where it is stored, what do you think about that?

Not a Christian? M’kay. Pick a book. Any book. The sole caveat - it has to be easily replaceable. In other words not a first edition, not a signed copy and not one with sentimental value. Ebooks are great for this. Instantly disposable and instantly replaceable.

Set fire to the harddrive?

Does this bother you?

Setting aside ebooks, what about burning the dead tree edition? Pick your book. Same caveat applies.

Burn the Bible, the Koran, the Torah. Pick an important, yet easily replaceable book. Set fire to it.

Does it bother you? Why?

And this is a hol(e)y cow.

“It’s a holy book!” you might exclaim.

And? Prior to being a book it was a tree and some minerals. Does process of turning the tree into pulp and then paper and then adding a chemical-mineral concoction we call ink to those pages somehow imbue the item with significance beyond the worth of the material contents?

Arg. Confusing.

In other words - is a religious book worth more than what it cost to make the book? Is a religious book worth more than a non-religious book? Why?

“Because of the contents,” you might say, somewhat annoyed.

Oops. I did it again.

Really? And how much do you really, really, really know about the contents of any religious book?

Did you know the majority of the world’s muslims are illiterate? How much do they know about the book? Did you know most Christians, if they ever open a Bible, it is in church and the vast majority have never read the Bible through even once?

Most adherents to any religion are ignorant and plan to stay that way of the texts of their beliefs.

If the contents are so incredibly valuable and you don’t know what the contents are, how can you be sure it’s so valuable?

“Because it is the word of God!” you say.

Ah. So I ask you, which is more disrespectful ah heck, call it like it is - Which is more blasphemous: To set fire to a religious book which you do not believe or to be intentionally and willfully ignorant of the contents of a religious book which you claim is the Word of God and which He gave you so that you could better do His will and understand His way?

Is it in the Bible or not? Atheists know. Most Christians don't.